Approaching (indirect) reports from Wittgenstein’s perspective on
language games, and evaluating them with an eye on Sperber and Wilson’s
Relevance Theory (RT), this paper draws on evidence from Persian to support
Capone’s Paraphrasis/Form Principle (PFP). It begins with a brief but informative
review of relevant works on reported speech—including Davidson’s Paratactic view
of indirect reports, Wittgenstein’s notion of language games, Sperber and Wilson’s
relevance theory, Weizman and Dascal’s theory of clues and cues, and Lepore and
Anderson’s views about slurs. It then goes on to show how Capone’s Paraphrasis/
Form Principle (PFP) functions as a more explanatorily adequate account of reported
speech. In doing so, it describes how (indirect) reports are performed in Persian. The
paper cites relevant examples from Persian to show that a semantico-pragmatic
explanation of reported speech—like Capone’s PFP—is more robust in adequately
explaining the notion of ‘samesaying’ which lies at the heart of (indirect) reporting.
Of utmost importance is the paper’s attempt at showing how ‘insincere’ reporting
through linguistic manipulations—like topicalization—can transform social realities.

Approaching (indirect) reports from Wittgenstein’s perspective on
language games, and evaluating them with an eye on Sperber and Wilson’s
Relevance Theory (RT), this paper draws on evidence from Persian to support
Capone’s Paraphrasis/Form Principle (PFP). It begins with a brief but informative
review of relevant works on reported speech—including Davidson’s Paratactic view
of indirect reports, Wittgenstein’s notion of language games, Sperber and Wilson’s
relevance theory, Weizman and Dascal’s theory of clues and cues, and Lepore and
Anderson’s views about slurs. It then goes on to show how Capone’s Paraphrasis/
Form Principle (PFP) functions as a more explanatorily adequate account of reported
speech. In doing so, it describes how (indirect) reports are performed in Persian. The
paper cites relevant examples from Persian to show that a semantico-pragmatic
explanation of reported speech—like Capone’s PFP—is more robust in adequately
explaining the notion of ‘samesaying’ which lies at the heart of (indirect) reporting.
Of utmost importance is the paper’s attempt at showing how ‘insincere’ reporting
through linguistic manipulations—like topicalization—can transform social realities.